ourparadisefandomcom-20200213-history
Soul
A soul is a database, an archive containing all the experiences, beliefs, memories, character, etc of a single unique sentient being. Put simply, “the soul is the person”. Again, it is a metaphysical existence that is found within the universe, but is not part of it. In this regard, the Soul is also indestructible. For the duration of an entity’s lifespan, the soul is rooted to the body by Edith, thus completing a triad of a sentient’s parts: body, life force, and soul. The soul’s content, the unique existence represented by the soul, is influenced by living. It is going through life and gaining experience that defines a person. It should be noted that the soul is not rooted in any particular part of the body; information engraves from the brain only because the brain is the physical repository of all bodily information and experience. The Soul itself gains an identity by a process called ‘engraving’. This process occurs once a sentient has enough experience in life to recognize the self. Once this process has occurred, the Soul’s identity is set in stone. Data engraved into the soul through experiencing life becomes a separate, permanent copy compared to the data recorded in the brain. Once these life experiences have been engraved, it is impossible for anybody but a Natural God of certain ranking to alter them in any way. As engraved data is a separate copy from the data stored in the brain, completely altering a person’s memories does nothing to change the person’s spiritual identity. Data is only engraved when the Soul processes memory in conjunction with the body. That is to say, if the body did not commit an act, even if the mind remembers having done so, said act will not engrave into the Soul, and vice versa. A person with MPD still has only one Soul. In that particular case, the engraving rule still applies, in that the first data to engrave itself into the Soul becomes the person’s identity. Once Edith is drained from the body, the soul is taken by Thanas to be stored for future purposes; that is to say, collection of souls for an evaluation of the universe through the eyes of its inhabitants. Again, the soul’s contents are a separate copy from the contents of the brain. Even though it is possible for the Tekgnos to replicate and transfer memories, experiences, and even consciousness, from one body into another, this transfer process does not affect the soul, as this capability is limited only to the mind, the physical data recorded in the brain, and not the metaphysical data in the Soul. Transfer of the soul has never been done before, as it is a very delicate metaphysical structure secured tightly to the body by Edith. One might think of the data stored in the soul as a printout on a sheet of paper, while the data stored in the brain is a soft copy of that. The ink printed on the paper remains on the paper even if you cross it out, apply liquid paper, or bleach it (readability is irrelevant; the point is that the ink is still there). In the case of the latter, you risk destroying the paper itself. On the other hand, a document on a computer can easily be rewritten to look as if there was an entirely different document there in the first place. For every conjunctive action that the body and soul take, a copy of that is printed out, and thus, engraved into the soul, with the exception of any identity changes, in which case the record would instead say that “Alfred, believing himself to be Carl, murders Joshua” as opposed to “Carl murders Joshua” in a situation where a person named Alfred has his mind’s contents completely erased, and replaced with those of Carl. Thus one might say that Marshal Dovian, the original, died with an empty mind, but with a soul that recorded everything he did prior. Furthermore, the clone bodies of Marshal Dovian have blank souls that, being inactive until his mind is planted in them, have no identity as no engraving has occurred yet. Once activated, and engraving begins taking place as they act like Marshal Dovian, they become pseudo extensions of him that, having his character, will count as a person who is similar enough to be considered a “Marshal Dovian 2”, but, as the number dictates, counts as a separate individual entirely. Marshal Dovian 2 did not get promoted to the rank of Marshal, did not crush the Duraphite Rebellion, and did not say the famous words “Humanity is the ultimate existence in the universe.” Marshal Dovian 2 remembers having done these, but that is because he merely has the memories of Marshal Dovian. None of these things are engraved into his soul, and thus, he is a separate existence altogether. Souls originate from Eden, who has been tasked by Agnes Tyamàt to create a way to internally experience the artwork that is the universe. After all, the gods, as caretakers, are not part of the universe even though they dwell within it. However, she has since taken a liking to sentient life, and has decided to give those willing a chance to serve other than just a tool for observation and evaluation. True adherents of Via have the option to either live forever in this universe, or forever in the universe that will come once Dexos-Brhan awakens. In the case of the latter, their souls are stored within Gaurdew, who will one day resurrect the faithful to experience the perfection of the new universe. The Soul has a separate consciousness from the mind/brain, but this only becomes evident when the consciousness of the brain and that of the soul fall out of synch, such as with the Alfred being brainwashed into thinking he is Carl example above. In such a case, the soul is disadvantaged, as it has no control over the body, unlike the brain, and will be likely incapable of reversing the problem unless the mind is completely wiped. If such a thing happens, the soul will be able to use its engraved data to refill the emptied mind, and thus return its body's consciousness to normal. As a metaphysical existence, it is possible to use a soul to fuel a magic spell. As it is a metaphysical process, the soul's indestructibility in the physical world becomes moot, and its existing limited energy is spent by the casting of the spell. The complete expenditure of one's soul has no immediate repercussions. Whether these repercussions are of any actual meaning or not depends on the person in question. Without a soul, once the body dies, the person's identity ceases to exist, as the record has been dissolved. Quite naturally, one also loses eligibility to become a practitioner of Via, which is concerned with preserving the soul for the future. It should be noted, that the only reason that souls are almost never used to fuel spells, is because they are vastly inferior to Chaff in terms of power output. After all, a Soul is a storage for data, and not a power source. Category:Metaphysics